New Evidence on the Harmful Effects of Porn

NC Family President John L. Rustin talks with Haley Halverson, Director of Communications for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation about the positive progress being made to educate the public about the harms of pornography and to limit its availability, especially to children.

“Family Policy Matters”Transcript: New Evidence on the Harmful Effects of Porn

INTRODUCTION: Thanks for joining us this week for Family Policy Matters. Our guest today is Haley Halverson, Director of Communications for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, and we are going to be discussing the positive progress being made to educate the public about the harms of pornography and to limit its availability, especially to children. There have been some interesting developments this election year as well, concerning where the major political parties stand on this issue, and we’re going to be talking about that too. Haley, it is great to have you back on the show, welcome to Family Policy Matters.

HALEY HALVERSON: Thank you for having me.

JOHN RUSTIN: Haley, it seems like the public health risks of pornography are getting more attention these days. In April, Utah became the first state to declare it a public health crisis. First of all, what are the public health dangers associated with pornography, and secondly, why are those dangers now garnering the attention of lawmakers and political leaders?

HALEY HALVERSON: You ask a very good question because there are so many public health harms of pornography. One fact is that it is so pervasive in society. One study found that 27 percent of older millennials first viewed pornography before puberty, so it’s affecting kids at younger and younger ages. And because of that, we’re seeing a plethora of harms. We know that since 2011, about 24 studies have been done showing that pornography has negative impacts on the brain. One of those negative impacts is that it’s actually linked to shrinkage in brain regions associated with motivation and impulse control, which is not great for the individual and not great for society. Beyond the brain, we also know that there are harms to the body, such as associated links with increased rates of STDs and also negative impacts on sexual violence. So there are definitely many public health harms from pornography. We could spend a whole hour talking about just that. But one of the reasons why it’s now become something that public officials are commenting on, I think, is really just because we’ve been raising an entire generation getting the majority of their sexual education from pornography. And so those harms are now starting to come out as these children who are first watching it are now going into their young adulthood. And so I think just because these harms are so apparent is why public officials are now willing to speak out about it.

JOHN RUSTIN: It’s good that they are. Talk more, if you will Haley, about Utah’s resolution on pornography and how that all came about.

HALEY HALVERSON: Utah’s resolution was actually drafted as a model resolution by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, and they picked it up and ran with it. It’s a non-binding resolution, just calling for a greater public awareness about the public health harms of pornography. So, as I said, it’s non-binding, it doesn’t require any funding, but it helps set a powerful precedent for the state officials to start just recognizing that there is a problem. We hope it will lead to policy changes in the future for things such as, making sure that there’s WiFi filtering on public schools and public libraries.

JOHN RUSTIN: Are there, to your knowledge, other states that are looking at similar resolutions?

HALEY HALVERSON: Yes. Actually Tennessee passed the resolution through their House, I believe it was, last session, but the session ended before they could get it all the way through. But we have probably three or four other states, including Tennessee, that we know are going to be hoping to put a resolution similar to this into effect next year.

JOHN RUSTIN: Haley, too many people view pornography as an isolated vice or an outlet of sorts for consenting adults, but it is actually closely linked to sexual exploitation and violence. Connect those dots for our listeners.

HALEY HALVERSON: Part of it comes down to the fact that pornography is teaching people something, and the lessons that it is teaching are lessons of sexual violence. Analysis of the 50 most popular pornographic videos, those bought and rented most often, found that 88 percent of the scenes contained physical violence, majority of the times against women. And 95 percent of the women’s responses were either neutral or pleasure. And so pornography is literally teaching people that women think violence is sexy. And, as a result, it’s not surprising that other studies have found that there is a link between pornography and increased sexual violence. Including a 2015 study that examined seven different countries and found that this is a consistent theme of pornography users having increased incidences of sexual violence against women. Then we also know that it does have an escalating effect, and for some users, in order to get the same old high, they need to go on and actually purchase individuals for sex. And so that’s where pornography is also linked to prostitution and sex trafficking as well. So people might say that pornography is just a fantasy, something that they’re just watching in the privacy of their own home, but every time that somebody is clicking on that, we actually know that they’re contributing to a larger web of sexual exploitation.

JOHN RUSTIN: It seems to me from information that I have seen and read that there is becoming a greater and greater awareness among elected officials and other folks within the law enforcement communities and in Health and Human Services arenas across the nation, to all the harms associated with this and the victimization of women and children, even to the degree that recently, the Republican and Democratic parties held their conventions, and a lot of people may not realize that, in addition to nominating their presidential candidates, the parties also discuss and approve their party platforms. Well in the context of that, the two major parties had something to say about pornography at their recent conventions. Talk about that Haley, if you would.

HALEY HALVERSON: The Republican National Committee at their convention passed a platform, which did include language declaring pornography a public health crisis. In addition to that, the DNC in their party platform, talked a lot about sexual violence against women and how it’s crucial for the nation to start addressing prevention programs, and ways to help prevent sexual violence against women. And somewhat through what I just talked about, about the link between pornography and sexual violence, we see that pornography absolutely fits and needs to play a significant role in the prevention efforts against sexual violence against women. And so we’re very encouraged by this! We absolutely think it points to a future of continuing to recognize the harms of pornography, are bipartisan; they’re actually not partisan at all. Everyone is effected by them. And so we’re encouraged by this and hope that these platforms will lead to further examination of these issues.

JOHN RUSTIN: And in addition to that Haley, the presidential candidates, as I understand it, have been asked to sign an anti-Internet pornography pledge by a national organization called “Enough is Enough.” Tell us about the Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge and why it is significant.

HALEY HALVERSON: This pledge was signed by Mr. Trump. And the Clinton campaign said they that have a policy of not signing any pledges but that they actually support the goals of this pledge. So again, I see this something that has potential to be very bipartisan. The real point of this pledge is when it talks about enforcing existing federal laws, including obscenity law, something that a lot of people don’t know is that what is most of hard-core pornography today, actually would qualify as “obscene” under the law. And it’s actually against federal law to distribute obscene material through the Internet, hotels, motels, and a host of other avenues. And so, one of the reasons that we’re having this public health crisis right now is because the Department of Justice is not enforcing that law, going after the distributors of this obscene material. So we definitely hope that future presidential candidates will stand by this pledge and will take a stand against obscenity.

JOHN RUSTIN: We’ve talked about this a little bit at the onset, but with the proliferation of WiFi and Internet streaming, sexually-explicit content has never been so readily available as it is today. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has been involved in a national campaign to make the Internet safer for children and families and that campaign partnership is called “Enough is Enough.” Tell us about those efforts.

HALEY HALVERSON: We partnered with Enough is Enough, in what we called the Porn-free WiFi campaign. We have had tremendous success! Just very recently, McDonalds has declared that it will filter the WiFi in all of their corporate-owned chains, and that they will also make those same functions available for their franchisees. And Starbucks has said they will filter their corporate-owned stores as well. So this is really important. It’s just one less place where a child could be unintentionally exposed to pornography, where sexual exploitation just isn’t allowed. And we hope that libraries and public schools will join in and make sure they have porn-free WiFi or Internet devices as well, because unfortunately many of them do not.

JOHN RUSTIN: Haley, I know that many of our listeners may be asking what can I do, I recognize this is very problematic and I know that my kids are able to access all manner of material on WiFi in restaurants, in shopping malls, in just public areas. What recommendations would you have for parents who want to help in this respect?

HALEY HALVERSON: There are so many things that they can do, and it’s exciting because of individuals taking steps to make changes like this. We’ve seen whole corporations shift on how they address this problem. So first of all, I would encourage you that one individual, one mom, one dad, can make a huge difference. One thing that they can do is talk to their kids about this. So many parents just want to have a one-time talk, but now in the age of pornography, kids are being bombarded by this so often, that they really do need to have multiple conversations and open dialogue about these harms. They can go to endsexualexploitation.org; we have a Resources tab that’s full of books and suggestions and articles on how to talk to your kids about this, and the best filtering for their houses as well. As far as other actions they can do, they can absolutely go in and talk to store managers at a Starbucks or at a McDonalds. If they see a Cosmopolitan magazine that’s out and at child’s eye level they can talk to a store manager at a supermarket and ask them to remove that. And they can also take a lot of actions on our website where they can send emails and sign petitions that we have ongoing, that are asking several different corporations to become more family-friendly, to take a stand against sexual exploitation. So also, even if they can’t make it out to supermarket, just head over to our website and you can take a lot of virtual actions that can make a big difference.

JOHN RUSTIN: Haley, what can teens and other children who are really bombarded by a lot of this content on a daily basis, what can they do, not only to help protect themselves, but to help protect their friends, family members and others from this sort of exposure?

HALEY HALVERSON: One thing is being somewhat educated about the actual harms of pornography. So many people say that it’s harmless, but that’s not what the research shows. Also, they can take a big stand by talking to their peers about it, you know especially guys in a locker room, or anything like that. Just letting them know that, no you don’t think that pornography is cool. There’s actually a really great organization called “Fight the New Drug” that is built directly toward teens and helping them to talk about these issues. They have really cool graphics you can share and great educational resources and short videos. So that would also be a resource that I’d direct any teenagers to.

JOHN RUSTIN: That’s great, Haley thanks so much for sharing that. I know you’ve mentioned your website a couple times already, but I want to give you an opportunity before we close to give that web address to our listeners again, so they can make sure to avail themselves of the valuable information that you all have.

HALEY HALVERSON: Absolutely. It is endsexualexploitation.org and thank you so much for having me.

JOHN RUSTIN: Haley Halverson, thank you for being with us again on Family Policy Matters, for your important work exposing the dangers of pornography, and also for providing practical solutions and opportunities for parents and teens to get involved and engaged in this issue. And, if we all work together we know that we can make a great difference in this arena. It is critically important, so listeners please get involved. Please go to endsexualexploitation.org and visit Haley’s website, learn more about the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, and what you can to do to play a part in helping to make our culture more porn free.